|
||
Financial services are going through a digital transformation, that has a strong impact on inclusion. In India, digital lending is taking off, with a rise in online consumer lending. A new report, “Credit Disrupted: Digital MSME Lending in India”, by Omidyar Network and Boston Consulting Group, estimates the potential of digital lending to MSMEs as a 10 - 15 fold increase touching $80 - 100 billion in annual disbursements by 2023. However, as pointed out by Graham Wright in a blog post, technology brings with it both opportunities and threats and he identifies the explosion of digital consumer credit in its current form as a threat, rather than an opportunity. Here, the RBI should take lessons from the experiences in Kenya and Tanzania, where loan delinquency rates from digital credit are high. It is important to monitor the trends in the industry and enforce strong customer protection measures; exercises like CGAP’s transaction data analysis with the Bank of Tanzania may be a useful template for the RBI to follow. CGAP research shows that regulators can do a lotto ensure improved transparency on loan terms and conditions, better credit screening models, encourage widespread deliberations on product suitability etc. However, a recent undercover report by ET Wealth revealed that banks continue to mis - sell insurance and other financial products, despite the RBI’s directive a year ago. Clearly, the RBI needs to take customer protection more seriously, and monitor more closely, rather than leave grievance redressal to ombudsmen. Digital credit can be a boon or a bane for inclusion, it is for the regulator to lay down the appropriate path for providers. |
||
|
||
|
||
• Towards a Mature Digital Payments Market for India - ICFI Policy Brief October,2018
|
||
|
||
|
||
• Fintech For Inclusion: Challenges And Opportunities • DBT for power: Prepare the ground first • With customers' nod, banks keep using Aadhaar for e-KYC • Examining mobile banking as a tool for financial inclusion in India • Half of India's ATMs may shut down by March 2019, warns industry body • Financial inclusion: Industry participants will need to redouble their efforts • Truecaller Pay to go live will Bharat Bill Payments Service in December • Foreign digital payment cos expect sharp increase in operating costs in India • What APIs Are Digital Financial Services Providers Opening? • Digital Credit Helping to Put Kids in Classrooms in Cote d'Ivoire • Cybersecurity for Mobile Financial Services: A Growing Problem |
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
Editor: sumita@indicus.org The Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion was launched in 2011 to distil and disseminate information on accelerating the poor’s access to high-quality financial services. ©Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved. 30th November 2018. | |
Newsletters from July 2020 are available at https://icfi.substack.com/
... Continue Reading
The availability of... Continue Reading
India’s progress in financial inclusion and digital payments over the past few years has been beautifully brought out by the Economic Survey 2021-22, which has thankfully,... Continue Reading
Last month, in December 2021, the Department of Financial Services constituted a Working Group to go into the issues and challenges affecting the business correspondent (BC)... Continue Reading
Results from the National Family Health Survey Round 5 2019-21 are out, further validating India’s phenomenal progress in financial inclusion – 77.4% of rural Indian women... Continue Reading
This Diwali, we did a quick roundup of India’s financial inclusion progress and picked out the key challenges we need to crack. Laveesh and I have been analysing and... Continue Reading
This Diwali just might see more cheer than expected as the aftermath of the second wave recedes. Several high-frequency indicators have shown a recovery... Continue Reading
India is going through a V-shaped recovery, as the impact of the second wave recedes. However, growth... Continue Reading
As the second wave of the pandemic died down in India, the economy began a patchy recovery –... Continue Reading
With the second wave of the pandemic receded, the economy is picking up slowly. However, local... Continue Reading
The times are bad, very bad. Last year, with a drastic national lockdown, India chose to save lives... Continue Reading
The times are bad, very bad. Last year, with a drastic national lockdown, India chose to save lives... Continue Reading